Notes for message preached on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010 at the Marbury Church of God.
The Price
Isaiah 50:4-9a
50:4 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens– wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.50:5 The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.
50:6 I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
50:7 The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
50:8 he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.
50:9a It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty?
The Ministry of the Messiah
By all accounts this is a messianic text, allowing us, through the inspired prophet, to gain a glimpse into the mind of Christ. This we must do, because we are admonished: “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” With what attitude did Jesus approach his ministry?
Isaiah 50:4-5:
Compare Luke 4:17-19 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me….
“the tongue of a teacher,” the tongue of one who is taught”…. the language here suggests that one who learns from God will be able to teach, to “sustain the weary with a word,” because he is also one who is able to learn continually, “morning by morning. The best teacher is one who constantly learns, and the prophet here shows us that Jesus is that kind of teacher, as each of us is called to be.
Jesus followed His own teaching! By doing so, He came to the Cross.
Isaiah 50:5-6 gives us the outcome of obedience: a willingness to endure hardship, to stand strong in the face of adversity. This is in keeping with the instructions he gave his disciples; compare Matthew 5:38-48, Luke 6:22-38
1 Peter 2:20-23
“not alone”
Isaiah 50:7-9 Despite widespread misunderstanding of his use of the opening verse of Psalms 22 , we have Jesus’ own assurance: “Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” John 16:32. A full reading of Psalm 22 will show that the entire experience of Christ is envisioned, from his anguished sharing in the human feeling of being forsaken,through the promise that this very suffering will lead to praise for generations to come. We should take heart in the knowledge that the promise and presence of God is greater than our momentary anguish;
see also 2 Corinthians 5:19 which suggests that when he sweat drops of blood, when his soul was troubled and sorrowful even unto death, even when he recited the words of the Psalm, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Scripture assures us that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” This says that all of these sufferings were endured by the Father as much as the Son, who was acting in obedience to the will of the Father whose desire was to “reconcile the world to himself.” similarly in our worst moments, at those times when it feels like the ceiling is made of lead and our prayers appear to go nowhere, our loving God, who “has given to us the ministry of reconciliation” is even then closer to us than our very breath. God did not change his mind, his purpose, or his character when Christ suffered on the cross; far from it; in Christ all of those aspects of God are revealed, because “God demonstrated his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God’s love for us was complete before, during, and after Christ went to the Cross. God does not change; but we, confronted with such great love, can be transformed. Hence even at such a moment we see words of triumph and victory, such as in Isaiah 50:9a
and Romans 8:31 . Just as the presence of God remained with Christ even through the worst moments of suffering, as he fulfilled his Father’s plan for the redemption of the world, so the promise from the same Father to us that “I will never leave you nor forsake you” is assured. Though he calls us to the cross, that call carries this same promise with it; and beyond all suffering is new life, victory over death.